ICANN Acronyms and Terms

ICANN has hundreds of acronyms and terms, which can be confusing. We created this multilingual tool to help explain what these terms mean and facilitate your work within the ICANN community. Search for terms by name or acronym using the search bar, or search by letter. All acronyms and terms are available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.

M

man-in-the-middle attackMITM attack

Any attack in which the attacker secretly interposes software or a computer system to intercept, capture, alter, or replay messages between two parties. Attackers use MITM attacks to capture information that one party transmits to another. Installing malware to record a computer user’s keystrokes is one form of MITM attack. In more elaborate schemes, an attacker impersonates one or both parties in an email exchange. During the email exchange, the attacker aims to dupe one of the parties into divulging sensitive information or authorizing a financial transaction.

Also Known As

CEO fraud

business email compromise

banking trojan horse

browser-in-the-middle attack

email in the middle attack

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